Author Archives: The Imberbus Crew

About The Imberbus Crew

An annual event in the UK where former London Transport buses run across Salisbury plain to the lost village of Imber

The date is set for Imberbus 2026 !

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We are pleased to start 2026 by announcing that this year, we are planning to run the Imberbus service on

Saturday 15th August 2026

when several vintage former London Transport Routemaster double deckers (plus a few newer ones) along with some visiting buses from other areas, will again provide a bus service from Warminster Station to Imber and other isolated locations on the Salisbury Plain between 10am and 6pm.

Once again our event will be a Car Free Day, with the only access to Imber on 15th August being on the buses operating the Imberbus service. These special arrangements help to keep traffic congestion around Imber village to a minimum, but they do mean that there are some restrictions on what you can and cannot do when you get there, details of which will be confirmed during the summer.

IMG_1116-001 (1568 x 1045)The timetable for this year’s service will also be published during the summer and is expected to be very similar to the one used in 2025. Buses will run from Warminster Station to Imber every 10-15 minutes, with the first bus departing at approximately 9.45am and the last bus returning at around 5.30pm. Please note that you cannot book in advance to travel on the Imberbus service – just turn up on the day and pay the conductor on the bus, or purchase a ticket from our ticket booth outside Warminster Station.

If you have not travelled on the Imberbus service before and would like to know more about it, please visit our website at www.imberbus.org which contains details about the history of Imber and the background to the service. We have also retained on there, details of the arrangements that applied for Imberbus 2025 as well as our popular Frequently Asked Questions page, to give you an idea of what to expect and we will update this information during July and then email you again, once the final arrangements for this year have been confirmed. If you have been sent this email by a friend and wish to join our mailing list, please follow the instructions on the front page of our website which explains how to do this.

Last year the Imberbus service raised almost £37,000, which was donated to various charities including the Friends of St. Giles Church, the Royal British Legion, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Macmillan Cancer, Salisbury Hospital Stars Appeal. Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust, The Bus Archive, Bristol Omnibus Vehicle Collection, London Transport Museum & LT Museum Friends, The Dorothy House and St.Clares Hospices, The Athenaeum in Warminster, Chitterne and Tilshead Village Halls, Market Lavington Museum, plus various community groups and charities in Warminster and around Salisbury Plain. We would obviously like to be able to improve on this figure in 2026 and so we do hope that you will be able to join us in August.

However if you cannot wait until the summer to visit Imber, or wish to visit the village when there are less people around, it is possible that St. Giles Church and the road through Imber will be open to everyone over part of the Easter weekend in April (although you will obviously need your own transport to get there on those dates). Further details of those openings will be available on the Imber Church website events page during the spring, but please remember to check that page again shortly before you travel as there is always the chance that access to the road through Imber may have to change at short notice if required for military training.

All Aboard for Imberbus tomorrow !

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As we have had a few new subscribers to our mailing list since we sent out our last email, we are sending it out again to ensure as many people as possible have advance information of what to expect at this year’s Imberbus.

Be aware that it looks like the weather tomorrow will be hot and sunny, so please remember to apply some some sunscreen and bring a bottle of water with you, as there is very little shade at Imber and none whatsoever at Gore Cross!

Please also note that as there will be more wheelchair-accessible buses operating this year, we will not be sending out a list of the specific journeys they will be operating. However if this information is important to you, please talk to one of the marshals in hi-viz vests at Warminster or Imber who will do their best to help.

Following on from last month’s email, this is a final reminder that year’s Imberbus service will be running this coming Saturday – 16th August 2025.

This year there will be up to 40 vehicles in operation, providing departures every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Rail Station, starting at 9.30am. Many journeys will be operated by more than one bus, some of which will be wheelchair accessible, so if you have mobility problems this should not prevent you from travelling to Imber.

In addition to the regular service between Warminster and Imber, buses will be serving Chitterne, Tilshead, West Lavington, Market Lavington, Brazen Bottom and New Zealand Farm Camp at least every 30 minutes during most of the day, and you can start your journey at Chitterne, Tilshead and the Lavingtons instead of Warminster if you wish – just wait at a marked bus stop along the route, signal clearly to the driver by putting your hand out as the bus approaches and ensure that you have some cash on you to pay the conductor.

Full details of what we have planned this year can be found on the “Imber 2025” page of our website (www.imberbus.org), but we would particularly draw your attention to the following arrangements and features:

  • August 16th will be a car free day at Imber, so the only vehicles that will allowed on to the military roads will be the Imberbuses themselves.  In addition to the car parks in Warminster Town Centre there will be additional parking available at the Cricket Ground in the village of Chitterne (east of Warminster) and at Sack Hill which is north of Warminster on the road to Imber Road, plus this year at Warminster School on the edge of the town centre. Please see the “How to get to Warminster” page of our website for more details of their location. but remember that there are no toilets or other facilities at Sack Hill and you will have to pay your bus fare in cash if you do not get on at Warminster Station!
  • Direct train services to Warminster are available from Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Bath, Trowbridge, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth (plus various towns in between) and there are still a few spaces available on the coaches that are running to our event from London, Basingstoke and South Wales – further details of these are provided on the “How to get to Warminster” page on our website.
  • If you are driving to Warminster from the north, be aware that the A350 road is closed for repairs at Westbury, but there are local diversions available for cars when you reach the outskirts of the town as explained in last month’s email.
  • We operate a simple fare structure on Imberbus, with just two ticket prices – £10 for adults and £2 for children.  These tickets will allow unlimited travel on service 23A for the whole day.  Please note that you will need to pay for your tickets in cash, unless you are boarding at Warminster Station where we will have a ticket booth that can also accept payment by contactless card. You will also need cash for purchases at Imber Church and some of the village halls, so please bring plenty with you!
  • If you live locally to Warminster, this year you can also purchase your tickets beforehand from the Athenaeum Centre on Warminster High Street or the “Iris & Olive” gift shop in the Market Place.
  • If you would like to visit Chitterne before heading to Imber, there will be buses running from the coach layby in Warminster Central Car Park direct to Chitterne at 10.20am. If you are not sure where that is, click on this link to see the walking route from the train station.
  • There are also two Imber / Imberbus related exhibitions taking place in Warminster at the same time as our event. Please visit the Exploring Warminster page on our website for more information.
Danger2

As Imber is in a military area that is normally closed to the public, facilities there are extremely limited and there are restrictions on where you can wander when you arrive. If you have not attended our event before we would therefore recommend that you read the Imberbus FAQ page on our website which provides important information on where you can and cannot go, where you can get something to eat and also the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain!). 

Please also bear in mind that the Imber plain is a very exposed location with very little shelter or shade except inside Imber Church! At busy times there may also be a short wait to get on a bus, so we therefore strongly advise you to wear sensible footwear, bring plenty of drinks and an umbrella with you, and slap on lots of sunscreen!

IMG_1116-002 (1393 x 1349)

We hope that you will be able to join us on Saturday and if you would like further information about our event, please check out the other pages on our website – www.imberbus.org. We would also be keen to see any photographs or videos that you take on the day – particularly if they would be suitable to replace those currently in use on our publicity or website. Please feel free to get in touch if you think you have any that might fit the bill.

All Aboard for Imberbus next Saturday !

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Following on from last month’s email, this is a final reminder that year’s Imberbus service will be running this coming Saturday – 16th August 2025.

This year there will be up to 40 vehicles in operation, providing departures every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Rail Station, starting at 9.30am. Many journeys will be operated by more than one bus, some of which will be wheelchair accessible, so if you have mobility problems please email us so that we can tell you what journeys we are planning to use them on.

In addition to the regular service between Warminster and Imber, buses will be serving Chitterne, Tilshead, West Lavington, Market Lavington, Brazen Bottom and New Zealand Farm Camp at least every 30 minutes during most of the day, and you can start your journey at Chitterne, Tilshead and the Lavingtons instead of Warminster if you wish – just wait at a marked bus stop along the route, signal clearly to the driver by putting your hand out as the bus approaches and ensure that you have some cash on you to pay the conductor.

Full details of what we have planned this year can be found on the “Imber 2025” page of our website (www.imberbus.org), but we would particularly draw your attention to the following arrangements and features:

  • August 16th will be a car free day at Imber, so the only vehicles that will allowed on to the military roads will be the Imberbuses themselves.  In addition to the car parks in Warminster Town Centre there will be additional parking available at the Cricket Ground in the village of Chitterne (east of Warminster) and at Sack Hill which is north of Warminster on the road to Imber Road, plus this year at Warminster School on the edge of the town centre. Please see the “How to get to Warminster” page of our website for more details of their location. but remember that there are no toilets or other facilities at Sack Hill and you will have to pay your bus fare in cash if you do not get on at Warminster Station!
  • Direct train services to Warminster are available from Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Bath, Trowbridge, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth (plus various towns in between) and there are still a few spaces available on the coaches that are running to our event from London, Basingstoke and South Wales – further details of these are provided on the “How to get to Warminster” page on our website.
  • If you are driving to Warminster from the north, be aware that the A350 road is closed for repairs at Westbury, but there are local diversions available for cars when you reach the outskirts of the town as explained in last month’s email.
  • We operate a simple fare structure on Imberbus, with just two ticket prices – £10 for adults and £2 for children.  These tickets will allow unlimited travel on service 23A for the whole day.  Please note that you will need to pay for your tickets in cash, unless you are boarding at Warminster Station where we will have a ticket booth that can also accept payment by contactless card. You will also need cash for purchases at Imber Church and some of the village halls, so please bring plenty with you!
  • If you live locally to Warminster, this year you can also purchase your tickets beforehand from the Athenaeum Centre on Warminster High Street or the “Iris & Olive” gift shop in the Market Place.
  • If you would like to visit Chitterne before heading to Imber, there will be buses running from the coach layby in Warminster Central Car Park direct to Chitterne at 10.20am. If you are not sure where that is, click on this link to see the walking route from the train station.
  • There are also two Imber / Imberbus related exhibitions taking place in Warminster at the same time as our event. Please visit the Exploring Warminster page on our website for more information.
Danger2

As Imber is in a military area that is normally closed to the public, facilities there are extremely limited and there are restrictions on where you can wander when you arrive. If you have not attended our event before we would therefore recommend that you read the Imberbus FAQ page on our website which provides important information on where you can and cannot go, where you can get something to eat and also the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain!). 

Please also bear in mind that the Imber plain is a very exposed location with very little shelter or shade except inside Imber Church! At busy times there may also be a short wait to get on a bus, so we therefore strongly advise you to wear sensible footwear, bring plenty of drinks and an umbrella with you, and slap on lots of sunscreen!

IMG_1116-002 (1393 x 1349)

We hope that you will be able to join us on Saturday and if you would like further information about our event, please check out the other pages on our website – www.imberbus.org. We would also be keen to see any photographs or videos that you take on the day – particularly if they would be suitable to replace those currently in use on our publicity or website. Please feel free to get in touch if you think you have any that might fit the bill.

Travelling to Imberbus

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Following on from our email earlier this month, here is some additional information to help you travel to this year’s Imberbus event on Saturday 16th August.

Our event attracts hundreds of people and can overload the car parks in Warminster town centre if everyone tries to park there. Fortunately Warminster is well served by buses and trains from the surrounding towns, as well as cities such as Cardiff, Bristol, Bath, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth and so we strongly recommend that you use these if at all possible (further details of these are listed on the “How to get to Warminster” page on our website).

In addition, this year National Express will be running a direct coach from central London and Basingstoke to Imber, tickets for which are now on sale.  Edwards Coaches will be also running a special coach to our event from Swansea, Bridgend, Cardiff and Newport. However tickets for both of these services need to be purchased in advance and capacity is limited, so if you wish to travel on them we would strongly recommend booking as soon as possible.

For those who need to travel to our event by car, in addition to the Warminster Town Centre car parks there are two additional car parking areas you can use:

Chitterne Cricket Field car park is situated in the village of Chitterne and last year was a popular alternative for those driving from Salisbury, London or other locations east of Warminster.  The car park is accessed off St. Mary’s Close which is a turning off the B390 (click HERE to see a map of it) or type BA12 0LR into your Satnav.  The charge for parking at Chitterne will be £5 per car (payable in cash) but please note that the first buses from Chitterne will not depart until 10.49am, although refreshments will be available for purchase in the village hall for those who arrive early! Please also be aware that if you park at Chitterne, you will only be able to purchase your Imberbus tickets by paying the conductor in cash on the bus (and there are no cash machines available at Chitterne).

Imberbus “Early Bird” car park at Sack Hill (about 2 miles from Warminster town centre at the top of the Imber Road).  To find out how to get there from Warminster, please click HERE or type BA12 0DJ into your satnav and when you get to the Land Warfare Centre, keep going up the steep hill (the parking area will be at the top of the hill, about 300 metres past the tank on a plinth !). Our buses will call at the Sack Hill Car Park on their way to Imber and there will be a shuttle bus based there as well, but please note that only 80 cars can be accommodated at this location so it may be full by lunchtime. Also be aware that if you park at Sack Hill, you will only be able to pay in cash to purchase tickets and there will be no other facilities (such as toilets) available there.

Finally, if you are travelling to Warminster by car from the north, please be aware that part of the A350 road is closed in Westbury and all the advance diversion signs will take you on a much longer route. However if you are driving a car, there are two alternative (and shorter) local diversion routes that you can take once you get to the closure point and these can be seen HERE and also HERE.

We hope that you find this information useful and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday 16th August.

The Imberbus Crew

Imberbus is running next month !

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This year, the Imberbus service to the lost village of Imber will be running on Saturday 16th August and once again it is promising to be a popular event with the only access to Imber on that date being on one of our buses.

We have up to 40 buses lined up to provide this year’s service which will run every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Station to Imber from 9.30am onwards. Many of these will be old and new London Routemaster buses, but there will also be a few “guest” vehicles that have probably never operated anywhere near the Capital!

As in previous years, when the buses arrive at Imber, some buses will then carry on to our interchange point at Gore Cross, from where they will continue twice an hour throughout the day either to Tilshead and Chitterne, or to Brazen Bottom and West/Market Lavington. Buses will also run from Gore Cross, Tilshead and the Lavingtons to New Zealand Farm Camp.

In addition to visiting the 16th century St.Giles’ Church at Imber, there will also be the opportunity again for our passengers to visit the Market Lavington Museum, which is located in the Old School Master’s House along side Market Lavington Church.  In addition to exhibiting local artefacts, the museum will also be serving cream teas which have proved to be a popular attraction in previous years. Light refreshments will also be available at Imber Church and in the village halls in both Tilshead and Chitterne, as well as in Warminster town centre.

Further details about this year’s Imberbus event can now be found on the Imberbus 2025 page on our website – www.imberbus.org. This includes maps, timetables, fares, suggestions on how to get to Warminster by public transport and where to park if travelling by car (including details of the alternative out of town car parks at Sack Hill on the outskirts of Warminster and on the Cricket Field in the village of Chitterne). For those travelling by public transport, the usual train services will be supplemented by a National Express coach service from London and Basingstoke and a special coach from South Wales operated by Edwards Coaches.

We have also updated our Frequently Asked Questions page, which provides important information on what you can and cannot do when you get to Imber. If you have not attended our event before, we strongly recommend you read this page as it includes details of where you can get something to eat, the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain), as well as information on the other villages that you can visit using our buses and why it is important to bring some cash with you.

IMPORTANT – If you are planning on bringing a group of people to Warminster in a bus or coach, please contact us immediately as there are very few coach parking facilities available in Warminster and we may be able to help you publicise your trip!

We therefore hope that you will be able to join us on 16th August and help us raise money for Imber Church and various local and military related charities.

The date is set for Imberbus 2025 !

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We are pleased to announce that this year, we are planning to run the Imberbus service on

Saturday 16th August 2025

when several vintage former London Transport Routemaster buses (plus a few newer ones) will again provide a bus service from Warminster Station to Imber and other isolated locations on the Salisbury Plain between 10am and 6pm.

Once again our event will be a Car Free Day, with the only access to Imber on 16th August being on the buses operating the Imberbus service. These special arrangements help to reduce traffic congestion around Imber village, but they do mean that there are some restrictions on what you can and cannot do when you get there, details of which will be confirmed during the summer.

IMG_1116-001 (1568 x 1045)The timetable for this year’s service will also be published during the summer and is expected to be very similar to the one used in 2024. Buses will run from Warminster Station to Imber every 10-15 minutes, with the first bus departing at approximately 9.45am and the last bus returning at around 5.30pm. Please note that you cannot book in advance to travel on the Imberbus service – just turn up on the day and pay the conductor on the bus, or purchase a ticket from our ticket booth outside Warminster Station.

If you have not travelled on the Imberbus service before and would like to know more about it, please visit our website at www.imberbus.org which contains details about the history of Imber and the background to the service. We have also retained on there, details of the arrangements that applied for Imberbus 2024 as well as our popular Frequently Asked Questions page, to give you an idea of what to expect and we will update this information during July and then email you again, once the final arrangements for this year have been confirmed.

Last year the Imberbus service raised more than £35,000, which was donated to various charities including the Friends of St. Giles Church, the Royal British Legion, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Macmillan Cancer, Salisbury Hospital Stars Appeal. Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust, Bristol Omnibus Vehicle Collection, London Transport Museum & LT Museum Friends, Dorothy House Hospice, Chitterne and Tilshead Village Halls, Market Lavington Museum, and community groups in Warminster and in and around Salisbury Plain. We would obviously like to be able to improve on this figure in 2024 and so we do hope that you will be able to join us in August.

However if you cannot wait until the summer to visit Imber, it is likely that St. Giles Church and the road through Imber will be open to everyone over part of the Easter weekend in April (although you will obviously need your own transport to get there on those dates). Further details of those openings are available on the Imber Church website events page , but please remember to check this again shortly before you travel as there is always the chance that access to the road through Imber may have to change at short notice if required for military training.

All Aboard for Imberbus on Saturday !

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Since sending out our last Imberbus email earlier this week, we have had several new subscribers to our mailing list. We therefore thought that we would send the email out again for their benefit, but feel free to press delete if you have already seen it.

Following on from last month’s email, this is a final reminder that year’s Imberbus service will be running this coming Saturday – 17th August 2024.

This year there will be up to 40 vehicles in operation, providing departures every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Rail Station, starting at 9.30am. Many journeys will be operated by more than one bus, some of which will be wheelchair accessible, so if you have mobility problems, please email us so that we can tell you what journeys we are planning to use them on.

In addition to the regular service between Warminster and Imber, buses will be serving Chitterne, Tilshead, West Lavington, Market Lavington, Brazen Bottom and New Zealand Farm Camp at least every 30 minutes during most of the day, and you can start your journey at Chitterne, Tilshead and the Lavingtons instead of Warminster if you wish – just signal clearly to the driver by putting your hand out as the bus approaches.

Full details of what we have planned this year can be found on the “Imber 2024” page of our website (www.imberbus.org), but we would particularly draw your attention to the following arrangements, some of which are different to previous years:

  • August 17th will be a car free day at Imber, so the only vehicles that will allowed on to the military roads will be the Imberbuses themselves.  In addition to the car parks in Warminster Town Centre there will be some additional parking available at Sack Hill which is on the Warminster to Imber Road and also at the Cricket Ground in the village of Chitterne. Please see the “How to get to Warminster” page of our website for more details of their location. but remember that there are no toilets or other facilities at Sack Hill and you will have to pay your bus fare in cash if you do not get on at Warminster Station!
  • Direct train services to Warminster are available from Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Bath, Trowbridge, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth, plus various town in between – for further details, please see the “How to get to Warminster” page on our website.
  • If you are driving to Warminster from the West, be aware that the A36 road is closed for repairs between Bath and Warminster, so you will need to take a different route if coming from Bath, Bristol or the M4 motorway.
  • We have retained the simplified fare structure so that on Saturday there will be just two ticket prices – £10 for adults and £2 for children.  These tickets will allow unlimited travel on service 23A for the whole day.  Please note that you will need to pay for your tickets in cash, unless you are boarding at Warminster Station where we will have a ticket booth that can also accept payment by contactless card. You will also need cash for purchases at Imber Church and some of the village halls.
  • If you live locally to Warminster, this year you can also purchase your tickets beforehand from the Athenaeum Centre on Warminster High Street or the “Iris & Olive” gift shop in the Market Place.
  • If you would like to visit Chitterne before heading to Imber, there will be buses running from the coach layby in Warminster Central Car Park direct to Chitterne at 10.20am. If you are not sure where that is, click on this link to see the walking route from the train station.
  • This year there are also two Imber / Imberbus related exhibitions taking place in Warminster at the same time as our event. Please visit the Exploring Warminster page on our website for more information.
Danger2

As Imber is in a military area that is normally closed to the public, facilities there are extremely limited and there are restrictions on where you can wander when you arrive. If you have not attended our event before we would therefore recommend that you read the Imberbus FAQ page on our website which provides important information on where you can and cannot go, where you can get something to eat and also the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain!). 

Please also bear in mind that the Imber plain is a very exposed location with very little shelter or shade except inside Imber Church! We therefore strongly advise you to wear sensible footwear, bring plenty of drinks and an umbrella with you, and slap on lots of sunscreen!

IMG_1116-002 (1393 x 1349)

We hope that you will be able to join us on Saturday and if you would like further information about our event, please check out the other pages on our website – www.imberbus.org. We would also be keen to see any photographs or videos that you take on the day – particularly if they would be suitable to replace those currently in use on our publicity or website. Please feel free to get in touch if you think you have any that might fit the bill.

Imberbus is running this Saturday !

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Following on from last month’s email, this is a final reminder that year’s Imberbus service will be running this coming Saturday – 17th August 2024.

This year there will be up to 40 vehicles in operation, providing departures every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Rail Station, starting at 9.30am. Many journeys will be operated by more than one bus, some of which will be wheelchair accessible, so if you have mobility problems, please email us so that we can tell you what journeys we are planning to use them on.

In addition to the regular service between Warminster and Imber, buses will be serving Chitterne, Tilshead, West Lavington, Market Lavington, Brazen Bottom and New Zealand Farm Camp at least every 30 minutes during most of the day, and you can start your journey at Chitterne, Tilshead and the Lavingtons instead of Warminster if you wish – just signal clearly to the driver by putting your hand out as the bus approaches.

Full details of what we have planned this year can be found on the “Imber 2024” page of our website (www.imberbus.org), but we would particularly draw your attention to the following arrangements, some of which are different to previous years:

  • August 17th will be a car free day at Imber, so the only vehicles that will allowed on to the military roads will be the Imberbuses themselves.  In addition to the car parks in Warminster Town Centre there will be some additional parking available at Sack Hill which is on the Warminster to Imber Road and also at the Cricket Ground in the village of Chitterne. Please see the “How to get to Warminster” page of our website for more details of their location. but remember that there are no toilets or other facilities at Sack Hill and you will have to pay your bus fare in cash if you do not get on at Warminster Station!
  • Direct train services to Warminster are available from Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Bath, Trowbridge, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth, plus various town in between – for further details, please see the “How to get to Warminster” page on our website.
  • If you are driving to Warminster from the West, be aware that the A36 road is closed for repairs between Bath and Warminster, so you will need to take a different route if coming from Bath, Bristol or the M4 motorway.
  • We have retained the simplified fare structure so that on Saturday there will be just two ticket prices – £10 for adults and £2 for children.  These tickets will allow unlimited travel on service 23A for the whole day.  Please note that you will need to pay for your tickets in cash, unless you are boarding at Warminster Station where we will have a ticket booth that can also accept payment by contactless card. You will also need cash for purchases at Imber Church and some of the village halls.
  • If you live locally to Warminster, this year you can also purchase your tickets beforehand from the Athenaeum Centre on Warminster High Street or the “Iris & Olive” gift shop in the Market Place.
  • If you would like to visit Chitterne before heading to Imber, there will be buses running from the coach layby in Warminster Central Car Park direct to Chitterne at 10.20am. If you are not sure where that is, click on this link to see the walking route from the train station.
  • This year there are also two Imber / Imberbus related exhibitions taking place in Warminster at the same time as our event. Please visit the Exploring Warminster page on our website for more information.
Danger2

As Imber is in a military area that is normally closed to the public, facilities there are extremely limited and there are restrictions on where you can wander when you arrive. If you have not attended our event before we would therefore recommend that you read the Imberbus FAQ page on our website which provides important information on where you can and cannot go, where you can get something to eat and also the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain!). 

Please also bear in mind that the Imber plain is a very exposed location with very little shelter or shade except inside Imber Church! We therefore strongly advise you to wear sensible footwear, bring plenty of drinks and an umbrella with you, and slap on lots of sunscreen!

IMG_1116-002 (1393 x 1349)

We hope that you will be able to join us on Saturday and if you would like further information about our event, please check out the other pages on our website – www.imberbus.org. We would also be keen to see any photographs or videos that you take on the day – particularly if they would be suitable to replace those currently in use on our publicity or website. Please feel free to get in touch if you think you have any that might fit the bill.

Imberbus is running next month !

Posted on by

This year, the Imberbus service to the lost village of Imber will be running on Saturday 17th August and it is already promising to be a popular event with the only access to Imber on that date being on one of our buses.

We have up to 40 buses lined up to provide this year’s service which will run every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Station to Imber from 9.30am onwards. Many of these will be old and new London Routemaster buses, but there will also be a few “guest” vehicles that have probably never operated anywhere near the Capital!

As in previous years, when the buses arrive at Imber, some buses will then carry on to our interchange point at Gore Cross, from where they will continue twice an hour throughout the day either to Tilshead and Chitterne, or to Brazen Bottom and West/Market Lavington. Buses will also run from Gore Cross, Tilshead and the Lavingtons to New Zealand Farm Camp.

Imber Exhibition poster

In addition to visiting the 16th century St.Giles’ Church at Imber, two Imber / Imberbus related exhibitions are also being held in Warminster Town Centre this year and there will also be the opportunity again for our passengers to visit the Market Lavington Museum, which is located in the Old School Master’s House along side Market Lavington Church.  As well as exhibiting local artefacts, the museum will also be serving cream teas which have proved to be a popular attraction in previous years. Light refreshments will also be available at Imber Church, at Casper’s Cafe at Warminster Station and in the village halls in both Tilshead and Chitterne, as well as in Warminster town centre.

Further details about this year’s Imberbus event can now be found on the Imberbus 2024 page on our website – www.imberbus.org. This includes maps, timetables, fares, suggestions on how to get to Warminster by public transport and where to park if travelling by car (including details of a new alternative car park in the village of Chitterne). It also gives information on two road closures in the area which will affect anyone driving to Warminster from the Bristol / Bath area, or approaching the town from the south.

We have also updated and expanded our Frequently Asked Questions page, which provides important information on what you can and cannot do when you get to Imber. If you have not attended our event before, we strongly recommend you read this page as it includes details of where you can get something to eat, the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain), as well as information on the other villages that you can visit using our buses and why it is important to bring some cash with you.

IMPORTANT – If you are planning on bringing a group of people to Warminster in a bus or coach, please contact us immediately as there are very few coach parking facilities available in Warminster and we may be able to help you publicise your trip!

We therefore hope that you will be able to join us on 17th August and help us raise money for Imber Church and various local and military related charities.

The date is set for Imberbus 2024 !

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We are pleased to announce that this year, we are planning to run the Imberbus service on

Saturday 17th August 2024

when several vintage former London Transport Routemaster buses (plus a few newer ones) will again provide a bus service from Warminster Station to Imber and other isolated locations on the Salisbury Plain between 10am and 6pm.

Once again our event will be a Car Free Day, with the only access to Imber on 17th August being on the buses operating the Imberbus service. These special arrangements successfully eliminated the severe traffic congestion that we experienced around Imber in 2019, but they do mean that there are some restrictions on what you can and cannot do when you get there, details of which will be confirmed during the summer.

IMG_1116-001 (1568 x 1045)The timetable for this year’s service will also be published during the summer and is expected to be very similar to the one used in 2023. Buses will run from Warminster Station to Imber every 15 minutes, with the first bus departing at approximately 9.45am and the last bus returning at around 6pm. Please note that you cannot book in advance to travel on the Imberbus service – just turn up on the day and pay the conductor on the bus, or purchase a ticket from our ticket booth outside Warminster Station on the day.

If you have not travelled on the Imberbus service before and would like to know more about it, please visit our website at www.imberbus.org which contains details about the history of Imber and the background to the service. We have also retained on there, details of the arrangements that applied for Imberbus 2023 plus our popular Frequently Asked Questions page, to give you an idea of what to expect and we will update this information during July and then email you again, once the final arrangements for this year have been confirmed.

Last year the Imberbus service raised more than £35,000, which was donated to various charities including St. Giles Church, the Royal British Legion, The General Artillery Volunteers, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Macmillan Cancer support, Salisbury Hospital Stars Appeal. Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust, The Bristol Omnibus Vehicle Collection, The London Transport Museum and various community groups in and around Salisbury Plain. We would obviously like to be able to improve on this figure in 2024 and so we do hope that you will be able to join us in August.

However if you cannot wait until the summer to visit Imber, we understand that St. Giles Church and the road through Imber will be open to everyone over part of the Easter weekend in April (although you will obviously need your own transport to get there on those dates). Further details of those openings are available on the Imber Church website events page , but please remember to check this again shortly before you travel as there is always the chance that access to the road through Imber may have to change at short notice if required for military training.